Irene Iddesleigh

Ros, Amanda McKittrick, 1860-1939Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 199K words
Chapters: 20

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Irene Iddesleigh by Amanda McKittrick RosAuthor: Ros, Amanda McKittrick, 1860-1939,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 31, 2010

Editor's review

Irene Iddesleigh is a novel self-published by Amanda McKittrick Ros at the end of the nineteenth century. Its highly idiosyncratic style has earned it a notable place in the reception history of English literature. It tells a melodramatic story centered on love and marriage, with straightforward plotting and clearly divided good and evil characters. What keeps the book being discussed is its ornate, deliberately bizarre diction and metaphors, which often make readers laugh. For those studying style, Victorian popular fiction, and the reception history of “bad literature,” it is a rare specimen; general readers can also enjoy it as a curiosity and see how strongly prose style shapes the reading experience. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy to obtain and well suited to excerpting and discussion. Read it in a relaxed spirit, not for depth of plot but for the language itself.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Victorian popular fiction and prose style
Scholars or enthusiasts studying the reception history of “bad literature” and literary taste
General readers who enjoy curiosity-driven reading and savor unusual styles
Learners who need public-domain English literary texts for language analysis

Not a good fit for

Readers of fiction who want tightly plotted logic and deep character development
Those hoping for a classic love story and emotional resonance
Readers with low tolerance for exaggerated, ornate prose

Reading tips

Read it as a stylistic specimen; jot down striking metaphors and share them with friends.
Don’t force yourself to read it in one sitting; go chapter by chapter and review the linguistic “highlights” after each.
Before reading, learn the common conventions of late-nineteenth-century popular fiction so you can compare the book’s deviations.
If using it for discussion or writing, select passages for stylistic analysis rather than summarizing the whole plot.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Why is this book famous?

Its fame comes mainly from its highly distinctive, deliberately ornate style rather than its plotting. It is often discussed in the reception history of English literature as a specimen of unusual style, which has attracted curiosity seekers and those studying literary taste.

What is the story about?

The available materials do not provide a detailed plot; they confirm only that it is a work of English literature. Judging from the title and common descriptions, it revolves around love and marriage with a melodramatic flavor. For specifics, rely on the text itself rather than hearsay.

Is it hard to read?

The language is English, but the long sentences and elaborate metaphors can easily disrupt reading rhythm. Read it in a relaxed spirit, section by section, focusing on the experience of the style rather than plot momentum.

Is it suitable as English-learning material?

It can serve as supplementary material for understanding late-nineteenth-century written English style, but it is not a model for normative writing. Its diction is deliberately strange; learners should distinguish “strangeness worth appreciating” from “expression worth imitating.”

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About the author

Ros, Amanda McKittrick, 1860-1939 Author · Irish · 1860–1939

Amanda McKittrick Ros (1860–1939) was an Irish novelist and poet, best known for her book Irene Iddesleigh. She published this novel at her own expense in the late nineteenth century and went on to write poetry and other works, though only this one title is held in our collection. Ros's style is highly idiosyncratic: she piled up ornate diction, used elaborate and often misplaced metaphors, and constructed convoluted, exaggerated sentences, so that she is often regarded as a byword for deliberately florid prose and has become a curious marginal figure in English literary circles. Discussion of her tends to focus on this style itself rather than on plot or characterisation. Beyond her name, nationality, dates and representative work, public information is limited, and details of her life and a complete list of her works remain to be verified.